England Sevens name squad for Gold Coast tournament

Phil Burgess will make his HSBC World Series debut for England Sevens after being named in the squad that will travel to the Gold Coast for the opening tournament of the season.
The 25-year-old is in his first season with England Sevens after signing from the Cornish Pirates and appeared in the summer’s FIRA European Grand Prix tournament victories in Lyon and Bucharest.
The squad is also boosted by the return of Chris Cracknell, who spent most of last season on the sidelines through injury.
The 29-year-old successfully returned to action after a knee injury in June and goes into his 30th World Series tournament.
England face Spain, France and South Africa in the pool stages at Skilled Park in the first of the global competition’s nine tournaments and despite only one week in the job, new head coach Simon Amor intends to make a positive start in Australia over the October 12-13 weekend.
He said: “We have experience in nine of the 12 who appeared in Moscow but it’s important to recognise that this is a new team with new ideas.
“We are focused on developing our game and changing the way we play, and we will make mistakes, but if we get it right we’ve every chance of being successful.
“It’s good to be able to give Phil Burgess his first appearance at this level and from what I’ve seen in the FIRA tournaments he’s got the potential to be a good sevens international at hooker, particularly with the lines he runs and his work at the breakdown.
“It’s great to have Chris Cracknell back too. It will take time for him to get back to the fantastic form he was in a couple of years ago but we’ve already seen glimpses in Europe of the power he can bring to our game.”
Former London Irish and Saracens wing Marcus Watson also travels with the squad as cover.
England Sevens: Dan Bibby, John Brake, Phil Burgess, Chris Cracknell, Mike Ellery, Christian Lewis-Pratt, Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton, Tom Powell, James Rodwell, Mathew Turner, Rob Vickerman.